As the South Carolina results roll in, many of the commentators on CNN seem flummoxed by the fact that Donald Trump criticized the war in Iraq and still won in South Carolina, “a state with a high number of conservatives and veterans.”

But do conservatives and veterans think the war in Iraq was a mistake or not? CNN seems to think they do.

The reality is that public views of the war are very mixed–Democrats overwhelmingly think the war was a mistake, Independents (who are able to vote in the SC primary), and Republicans continue to support the war.

Source: 2014 CCES

What about veterans? The assumption on CNN seems to be that veterans would support the war, but in fact they do not. Veterans, whether measured as “I served in the military” or “I am a member of a military family” are almost evenly divided on the wisdom of invading Iraq.

There are many reasons that Trump won SC, but his criticism of the Iraq War should not surprise anyone. Among Independents, Democrats, and even members of the military, the war remains very unpopular.

The Early Voting Information Center

We are a non-partisan academic research center based at Reed College in Portland, Oregon.

Professor Paul Gronke and his team conduct research on early voting and election reform, predominantly in the United States. In addition to our scholarly research, we have worked on projects with the Pew Center on the States, the Federal Election Assistance Commission, the Center for American Progress and a number of state and local elections offices.

The Early Voting Information Center is proud to have co-hosted the inaugural Election Sciences, Reform, and Administration Conference in July of 2017. More information can be found on the conference website.

Professor Gronke's academic credentials--including his curriculum vita, courses taught, and other research papers--can be found at his personal Reed web page.